Adjustable width guiding devices for guiding different width strip material into a punch press are known in the art. Usually such devices are a pair of parallel guide plates coupled together by coupling legs to form a parallelogram. Thus as the space between the guide plates is diminished the ends of the oppositely-mounted guide plates are further separated laterally. This requires spacing the guide members away from the die of the punch press as well as any feeder mechanism feeding the guide members to allow for this lateral movement of the guide members. This makes for a laterally extended assembly which is costly and space consuming. Further, the necessary gaps between the guiding device and the die as well as the feeder mechanism become potential sources of alignment error and buckling of the strip material. Thus what was needed was a compact guiding mechanism which was still adjustable for different widths of strip material and which also would firmly grasp the strip material during the punching operation.